Faced with escalating theft at remote power sites, Evergy turned to LVT's mobile security units—reducing losses, improving response times, and keeping construction on track.
Evergy, the largest electric company in Kansas, powers home and businesses for more than 1.7 million customers. With their power plants and construction projects often placed in remote locations, they had become a hotspot for crime, resulting in annual losses exceeding half a million dollars and hundreds of thefts. While they are experts in supplying their customers with sustainable and reliable power, they needed a better way to protect power sites and construction areas. In 2019, they turned to LVT as an innovative security solution, to significantly reduce losses, safeguard valuable assets, and ensure their projects stayed on schedule.
Over the years, Evergy faced substantial losses due to frequent theft of expensive materials like copper wire, vehicles, tools, and equipment parts. Despite having a security system in place at many sites, the losses often went unnoticed until workers arrived in the morning and found the place gutted. In one night alone, Evergy lost $100,000 when an entire spool of copper was stolen and a transformer was destroyed. The financial impact was compounded by significant delays in construction projects, sometimes setting them back by weeks or even months. Precision in timelines is crucial for large-scale construction, and these thefts created costly disruptions for the company.
After deploying several LVT mobile security units, Evergy saw immediate results. Sites that had a history of frequent theft and trespassing saw those incidents drop to practically zero.
Since 2021 the company significantly increased its construction projects. They anticipated a rise in theft due to increased opportunity for crime, but the implementation of LVT has led to a steady decrease in losses. Evergy is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and keeping projects on schedule. Even though the company has increased their construction projects, their losses have only decreased.
Lead security investigator Daryl Wingerd attributes the remarkable security success to several key features of the LVT mobile security units that allowed them detect and deter crime.
In most cases, incidents of theft have been reduced to zero. The mere presence of the LVT security units, equipped with flashing lights and cameras, is sufficient to deter potential criminals. Security footage has repeatedly shown cars and individuals approaching the fence lines of a site, only to promptly turn away upon noticing the security system. The LVT® Units effectively prevent problems before they start, ensuring the safety and security of the sites.
Previously, Evergy wouldn't discover theft until the next morning; now, they receive real-time alerts. One Saturday night the system sent an alert that a car had stopped in front of the construction site. As security officers examined the alert and watched the cameras, they saw three individuals approaching the fence line and materials on the site. Using the pan, tilt, zoom camera function, the officers tracked the suspects. Upon seeing the individuals approach materials, the security team triggered the trespass warning. Wingerd recounted, “These guys literally fell on the ground running back to their car.” Tripping over themselves, they couldn't get away fast enough. “We had no loss, no damage.” Wingerd calls these encounters “chase aways” and says they have had at least 17 of these since using LVT. These real time alerts allow them to address the problem immediately rather than coming in the next morning seeing the property gutted.
In the few instances where criminals were not deterred by the system, the LVT mobile units captured video evidence of the theft, allowing police to make several arrests and convictions. The cameras were able to detect and notify when someone even approached the fence line, giving security officers and police more response time to stop the thieves in the act.
Evergy now uses 52 LVT Units company wide. Wingerd shared that after testing other competitor products, none matched the coverage, quality, and reliability of the LVT Units. They outperform any other security system they have tried. Wingerd cites the instant notifications, thermal detection, and PTZ as key features that make him confident in recommending LVT Units for every construction site in the company. The LVT Command Centers play an active role in detection and crime prevention, making LVT an indispensable part of their security solution company-wide.
.webp)
